Mary Cassatt Quotes

#1. Acceptance, under someone else's terms, is worse than rejection.

Mary Cassatt

#2. I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.

Mary Cassatt

#3. There are two ways for a painter: the broad and easy one or the narrow and hard one.

Mary Cassatt

#4. At some future time I shall see New York the artist's ground. I think you will create an American School.

Mary Cassatt

#5. The first sight of Degas' pictures was the turning point of my artistic life.

Mary Cassatt

#6. Cezanne is one of the most liberal artists I have ever seen ... he grants that everyone may be as honest and as true to nature from their convictions; he doesn't believe that everyone should see alike.

Mary Cassatt

#7. If painting is no longer needed, it seems a pity that some of us are born into the world with such a passion for line and color.

Mary Cassatt

#8. Sometimes it made him [Degas] furious that he could not find a chink in my armor, and there would be months when we just could not see each other, and then something I painted would bring us together again.

Mary Cassatt

#9. There's only one thing in life for a woman; it's to be a mother ... A woman artist must be ... capable of making primary sacrifices.

Mary Cassatt

#10. It is as well not to have too great an admiration for your master's work. You will be in less danger of imitating him.

Mary Cassatt

#11. I am independent! I can live alone and I love to work.

Mary Cassatt

#12. I have touched with a sense of art some people-they felt the love and the life. Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?

Mary Cassatt

#13. Why do people so love to wander? I think the civilized parts of the World will suffice for me in the future.

Mary Cassatt

#14. Women should be someone and not something.

Mary Cassatt

#15. I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around when the fruit falls to pick it up.

Mary Cassatt